In this book, Michael Kiskis offers an alternative interpretation of Mark Twain's major fictions: not as realism, local color, or Southwestern humor , but as national novels, or more particularly as satires of domestic novels. While authors of domestic melodrama value the family and feature noble spouses and/or parents, Twain repeatedly challenges this tradition by depicting characters guilty of domestic violence, sentimental folly, and even infidelity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayEach of the protagonists in Clemens' major fiction—Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Jim, Tom Canty, Edward VI, Hank Morgan, Roxy , Valet de Chambre and Tom Driscoll are shaped by their family circumstances and each, due to a broken family and the emotional constriction caused by this loss, suffers from a lack of true attachment. The author identifies and explores their most fundamental similarities: the problem of the home, the notion of filial relationships, the quest for comfort and family. In essence, "Tom Sawyer," "The Prince and the Pauper" and "Huckleberry Finn" tell a single story: a story that follows a child through a maze of biological and social relationships in a quest for physical comfort and peace and existential calm. The author notes the absence of the father in many of Clemens' tales and highlights the death of John Marshall Clemens, in 1847, as an emotional focal point in Clemens' fiction. Clemens' father was reserved and emotionally distant from his family, which, combined with his untimely death, which plunged the family into financial crisis, created a void in Sam that manifested itself in his fiction. Born into a loveless marriage, the child who became Mark Twain lived in a house where the specter of violence continually loomed. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Twain Wrote it is so often about children forced to live on the margins, children who, lacking one or both parents, struggle to eke out a living in the face of a hostile world. Clemens wrote fiction that required readers to think about the fate of his child characters and, therefore, the fate of children facing an antagonistic world. As a father, Clemens couldn't help but wonder what the world would offer his daughters. Clemens' social criticism was motivated by the hope that telling a story could inspire readers to act for a good and moral purpose..